Spotting and Avoiding Scams

Roomi's mission is to provide a safe and secure platform for you to find roommates and we take measures to keep our community safe. Unfortunately being online means you may come across someone trying to commit fraud in some way.

Most scams attempts involve one or more of the following:

• They want to take the conversation to email or text right away.
• They will tell you that the property manager will contact you after giving them your personal information.
• You get an email or text from someone that’s not living in your area.
• Poor grammar/spelling
• They want you to transfer money via Western Union, Money Gram, cashier's check, money order, or PayPal without sending a lease or showing you a room
• They refuse to meet face-to-face or on video chat to show the room. The scammer may pretend to be unable to speak by phone (most scammers prefer to operate by text/email).

Here are our tips for avoiding scams:

1. Read the listing carefully, and look for spelling grammar, and spelling mistakes.
2. Use Google to search for images used in the listing. Doing this will show if the photos are taken from other websites and are from a different location.
3. Do your research! Determine how much a standard room goes for in your area, especially if the rent is too good to be true. For example, if someone lists a place in Midtown NYC for $800, but a room will generally go for over $1,500, it's likely a scam.
4. Avoid giving your email address or personal information immediately. Scammers will ask you to provide them with your email address or phone, so they can get to know you better. They will do their best to take the conversation off the platform.
5. The Roomi team will never confirm bookings outside of our platform. If the user is convincing you to confirm via text or email, it's likely a scam.
6. Ask the lister to do a video walkthrough. If they refuse and give you an excuse, it's likely a scam.
7. Look for a sense of urgency. For example, scammers will pressure you to secure the room by placing a deposit immediately, even if you haven't visited the place

If you notice anything suspicious, you can always report it to us by flagging it. We take flags extremely seriously and will always investigate your report.

If you have further questions or concerns, please contact us at hello@roomiapp.com

Scammers are creative when they try to fraud users. Here are some common scams that we've seen.

Email scam reported

You'll receive an email from a property manager claiming to be a team member from Roomi. They will ask you to wire the security deposit to a bank account. The email is deceptive and included our logo and an email address that looks like our brand.

We only use hello@roomiapp.com and security@roomiapp.com and will never email you anything else.

Secured Reservation Email

Roomi does not send emails to confirm reservations.

We only use hello@roomiapp.com and security@roomiapp.com and will never email you anything else.